Godhood is an old-school god game from the creators of Reus

Developed by Renowned Explorers and – more relevantly – Reus studio Abbey Games, Godhood is a game about what it says on the tin. In vaguely Populous-esque fashion, playing as an unseen deity, you’re to lead your tribe to dominance through indirect means, poking, prodding and manipulating, but never outright telling them ‘Go here, stab these guys’, even when other gods start muscling in on your holy turf. Pity it’s not out until 2019, as it’s been too long since we’ve had a proper thunderbolts-and-lightning (very very frightening) god game.

Abbey’s earlier Reus was vaguely similar in concept. Playing as a massive deific giant, you altered the land and shaped nature in such a way as to lead mankind to a balanced yet prosperous existence. Godhood looks to build on that concept further. While you can’t reshape the world, you can nudge its inhabitants into carrying out your will. You’ll be deciding what monuments they’ll build, what rituals they perform, and how they can best worship you, but you’re probably not going to be erupting any volcanoes.

While genocidal acts of world-sundering wrath aren’t on the cards, there will be conflict. Apparently you’ll have to beat down rival deities through ritual combat. It’s not just clubbing people over the head, either – your followers can choose to win by persuasion or awe too – but there’s always the option to just overpower your foes. After all, if might makes right, then the almighty must be the most righteous of them all. Especially if your tribe worship cats – who’s going to argue with them?

Abbey are still teasing us with little hints at how Godhood’s larger structure works, but they have confirmed a story-driven campaign that’s built for replay value. It’ll be interesting to see how the studio handle the finer points of strategy when you’re largely playing a hands-off role. Without the ability to call down godly miracles, I’m reminded a little of the Majesty series, where you led your forces by placing bounties on targets. There’s a lot of unexplored territory in real-time strategy, so it’s nice to see Godhood poking a little bit at the edge of its sub-genre’s fog of war.